Monthly Archives: October 2014

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Simone Biles had a historic competition at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China. She took home gold medals in the all-around, beam and floor individual events as well as the team gold with her U.S. teammates. Additionally she won the vault silver medal. Biles was the first U.S. woman to win back-to-back World all-around titles in almost twenty years, since Shannon Miller accomplished the feat in 1993-94. She overtook Miller in the most world championship gold medals by winning six in the last two years to Millers five. Biles also became the first U.S. woman to win four gold medals at a single world championships.

Biles may very well be one of those once in a life-time gymnasts. She achieved these results by competing some of the hardest gymnastics skills with clean execution (the gymnastics basics: straight legs, pointed toes, correct body positions and stuck landings). And she did it with so much energy and power, it is easy to see that she has a lot of room to do even more. While most gymnasts look to be at the very edge of their abilities, Biles soars through the air with room and energy to spare.

Biles will resume full time training, with a slower pace and some time to work on new skills.”I am taking training a little bit easier right now and will learn a few new skills on a few events” said Biles in a media phone interview. Though she may not really need to continue adding to her difficulty score (she led the all-around competition in difficulty) she has not yet reached her limits by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, her shoulder injury earlier in the year caused her to have to downgrade bars from last year. After the world championships, coach Aimee Boorman mentioned in a tweet that now that her shoulder is healed, Biles will be looking to upgrade her second vault to a Cheng. In the interview this morning, Biles confirmed that she will be working toward the Cheng. She also shared that since her Amanar vault is so consistent, Marta Karolyi has encouraged her to try for the triple-twisting yurchenko. If successful, Biles would be the first woman in history to compete this vault.

As for other upgrades, Biles said she would also be looking to get bars back to her former level of difficulty by adding the shaposh half back in. She said she also might work the double-double layout on floor, a pass competed by only three other female gymnasts on the international elite level. And though she had phenomenal success this year, she was only able to hit beam like she does in training in event finals. Biles said she plans on addressing that in her training plan as well.

After leaving her longtime gym earlier in the year with Boorman, Biles trained for a while at another local gym. Now, they are training in a temporary location while the gym that her parents are building is completed. It is supposed to be completed in May or June of next year. For now, she is content to be training somewhere they can call World Champions Centre. “In the beginning they kept telling me they were going to start building [and it wouldn’t happen]… but I am busy training. I don’t really pay attention to the details, it’s not my business.” Running a gym is not something she sees in her future, and is something she is happy to leave to her parents.

What she does see in her future is college gymnastics. Earlier this year, Biles committed to UCLA, and she is firmly committed to maintaining her NCAA eligibility. Though she will put all of her energy and training into shooting for the 2016 Olympics, she currently does not have plans to go pro. “My parents have talked about it a little bit but haven’t pushed me. They are letting it be my decision.” Biles acknowledged that things might change in the future, but for now that is her direction.

With Biles’ power, energy, determination and team of supporters, it seems that for her the sky is the limit. Literally.

With podium training already in the books and a few days left before qualifications, the time to speculate is ripe. After looking at the line up and performances in podium training, here are the likely line ups for Team USA in qualifications and team finals and predictions on event finals qualifiers. There aren’t a lot of surprises here, but one point of speculation is how much the US will use Kyla Ross during team finals.

The US team is likely to be very dominant in the team competition. Ross has the capability to not only contribute on every event in team finals, but also to win a silver medal in the all-around and event medals on beam and floor. In order to give her the best chances of individual success, resting her injury would be wise. However, Marta Karolyi tends to put the focus of the needs of the team first. It will be interesting to see if she decides to rest her or use her on all four events.

Podium training today held an unusual sight, that of Kyla Ross all taped up. Though Ross has battled some back injuries this year, she is not a gymnast you usually see with a lot of tape on her body. Not so today. “I’m kind of held together by tape right now,” Ross said in an interview with Inside Gymnastics. “The last few days at the ranch, I think I kind of overstretched it doing a few leaps. It’s my hip, groin and hamstring – that whole area.”

A few of Ross’ leaps on beam looked a little tentative, not hitting her normal full split. Despite the injury, she looks more polished and precise than she has all year on beam. She did a great floor routine, dynamic and poised, however without her upgrade of a whip to double arabian from earlier in the season. Vault was not her normal clean DTY, however Inside Gymnastics reported that she hadn’t been training vault much throughout the week. She did a beautiful bars set, but with some small form issues. All in all she did four clean, solid routines. If they weren’t up to the normal Kyla Ross standard, they were definitely within reach.

Ross has been working hard to shine at these championships and doesn’t want to let the injury get in the way. “I have the motivation knowing that I’ve been training really hard all this year,” said Ross. “I really want to come out and compete, give it my all and I don’t want anything to stop me.” She will no doubt give it her all in qualifications, and with two more days of training and healing she will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with.

Ross comes into these championships as the defending silver medalist in the all-around, on beam and on bars. She will be looking to defend her all-around title and top the podium with teammate Simone Biles in the all-around. Always consistent on beam, she has a great chance of making finals on that event and trying to win a beam medal. However on bars, she has had to downgrade her routine this year due to her back injury, and topping teammates Ashton Locklear and Madison Kocian will be no easy feat to make it into bars finals.

Six serious faces took on the World Podium today as the U.S. Women’s team made their first official foray into the 2014 World Championships. After a week of training and acclimating in Nanning, China, the U.S. women seemed ready for business during today’s podium training. And as has become the norm, they hit routine after routine on event after event.

In 2011, the U.S. women’s program began a new era of dominance in consistency. Podium training, qualifications, team finals, all-around finals, and event finals look pretty much the same. Hit routine after hit routine. Compete, hit, repeat. Of course, there have been a few exceptions, but for the most part, gone are the nail-biting days of wondering if a gymnast is going to fall. Because, they just don’t. Aristotle has said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is not an act, but a habit.” Martha Karolyi and the rest of the U.S. coaching staff have hit the sweet spot of making a habit of excellence, peaking their gymnasts at just the right time to hit every time on the world stage.

The 2014 U.S. women’s World Championship team contains a number of gymnasts – five of the seven- who have not competed at a world championship level before. Every one of them has competed at an international meet at least once, but in the world of USA gymnastics, many of these girls are virtually untested. Most USA gymnasts begin competing internationally as juniors, and by the time they hit the senior ranks, they have had a number of international meets under their belt.

But you would never have known it from podium training. Each gymnast went out and did what they are trained to do. Hit their routine. There were a few bobbles here and there but only one miss, a fall on beam from Ashton Locklear. Every other routine looked like it was coming from a veteran competitor, and Locklear looked fabulous on bars, the event USA is counting on her for.

Veteran competitors Kyla Ross and Simone Biles have been helping the girls who are newer to the international stage. “I feel like I have helped them quite a bit, me and Kyla have led them through the ropes, and if they are having a down day we know what to say because we have been there.” said Biles in an interview with USA Gymnastics. And though it seems only yesterday that Ross was team baby, she has in fact firmly held the role of team leader the last two years.

And speaking of the team, after a year off from the team competition at last year’s championships, Biles and Ross are excited to compete with the team. “Having the girls’ support and being able to support everyone else is really fun,” said Ross. And though Biles is defending her World All-Around Champion title, she is here to win a team gold. “Winning a team gold would mean everything to me because I am a team person so I think that would be a lot of fun to do. Last year was individuals so you had to just do it on your own, but this year is team so you can do it together and just be proud of everyone.” When asked about her individual aspirations, the bubbly teenager cast them aside. “I don’t think I am very pressured, but a lot of people are pressuring me into being the world champion again, but I just throw it out of my head and think of it as a normal competition.”

The women begin their bid for the medal podiums Saturday, October 4th at 6am EST. USA gymnastics will be livestreaming the qualification rounds for USA, Russia, China and Romania/Great Britain. They will also livestream the team, all-around and event finals in conjunction with Universal Sports. Check out the schedule to make sure you don’t miss any of the action. All livestreams, as well as individual US routines will also be archived on the USA youtube channel, where you can already watch a replay of podium training.

U.S. Women’s team poses at podium training. Photo by John Cheng via USA Gymnatics